SPLC wins a $7 million verdict that bankrupts the United Klans of America

A federal jury in Mobile, Alabama awarded $7 million in damages against the United Klans of America on February 12, 1987, in a civil suit brought on behalf of Beulah Mae Donald, whose son Michael was lynched by Klan members in 1981. Lead counsel Michael Figures and SPLC attorneys argued the Klan organization bore corporate liability for its members' violence — treating UKA as an enterprise accountable for member acts. The verdict bankrupted the UKA, forcing it to deed its Tuscaloosa headquarters to the Donald family and ending the organization.